


Heart Like a Bird

by paperwar



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou
Genre: Chromatic Character, Chromatic Source, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-09
Updated: 2011-11-09
Packaged: 2017-10-25 21:38:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/275072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperwar/pseuds/paperwar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It would be a new, intriguing game, anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart Like a Bird

**Author's Note:**

  * For [opalmatrix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Гордое сердце](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1805197) by [wakeupinlondon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakeupinlondon/pseuds/wakeupinlondon)



The first time Hinoe ever saw a human, she was a wee thing, young enough to almost be like a human herself, silly creatures. She'd had a friend with whom she was often getting into mischief. Though even then, Hinoe had been particular about her clothing and her hair, and running through the forest was often a messy affair. Still, one day she and Tomoko were in the middle of some childish game when they heard something that stopped them short: a gravelly, rude sort of voice. They dropped down behind the bushes as its owner came into view: an older man singing to himself as he walked along with an axe.

"Is that... a human?" Hinoe gasped. He was dull, bereft of any otherworldly senses or power. His aura stunk, in a bland way, like that was how it was supposed to be.

"They can't see us," Tomoko said, dancing out from the brush to leap directly in front of him, yelling as she did so. The man either really couldn't see or hear her, Hinoe thought, or he was an excellent actor: he kept looking steadily ahead, and his pace neither quickened nor slackened.

Hinoe stood up, brushing off her clothes, and sauntered up to him, keeping pace as he carried on. "Excuse me," she said, politely mocking, "but can you hear me?" Giggling, she waved a hand an inch or two away from his nose. No reaction.

"How pathetic!" she shouted, standing on tiptoe to aim directly in his ear. She wrinkled her nose and added, "And you smell!"

Tomoko was guffawing alongside, and continued to shout abuse at the unsuspecting man along the path, but Hinoe stalked off. When Tomoko caught up with her a few minutes later, all Hinoe could repeat was, "Disgusting! They can't even see us. How stupid they are!"

Tomoko frowned. "But that means we can play tricks on them! They don't notice who's loosened their shoe or pinched their money. We get to hear all their secrets if we want."

Hinoe turned up her nose. "Who wants their pathetic little trinkets anyway? And their secrets?"

From then on, if Hinoe encountered a human, she kept far away. It was only when she became aware of the delicate, beautiful fabrics they were able to create that she lowered herself to pilfering clothing once in a while. The youkai could create stunning garments, and with much less effort, too. But there was something about snatching these things from humans. The cloth, even where imperfect, often held a mysterious vitality, for all it was completely unmagical.

"It's because they die so soon," Tomoko suggested once. "So they try to put a little bit of their soul into anything they make. They imagine it lets them live on, after they die, or something." She chortled. Hinoe echoed her laughter, but there was something moving about it.

So she despised humans at the same time as she felt pity for their revolting, fleeting lives. It was convenient, too, to not have to worry about being seen; as the years wore on, humans encroached more and more into the forests and the mountains. Taking the old paths to go about her business, she found it nearly impossible to avoid humans. A couple of times she'd seen one of them shiver as she strode by, but most of them wouldn't feel it even if she blew smoke into their ears (which she tested, several times).

All that changed one day. She was meandering through the trees and enjoying the sun when she saw a girl up ahead. _Well_ , Hinoe thought, _I was feeling a little bored; here's something that might be interesting_.

Except the girl turned, facing Hinoe unerringly, and addressed her. Unforgivable.

 _I'll show you_ , Hinoe thought, smirking to herself.

But by the time the sun had set, everything was different. She sat in the dark under a tree, staring ahead, clutching her hairpin. She didn't understand why she still had it, but even more pressing: how had the humans managed to produce someone like Reiko? Sharp and bright, so sharp Hinoe thought she could bleed herself out along Reiko's jagged edges.

Hinoe liked it best when things were simple. Complications tended to mean getting tears in her best clothes. And Reiko was, no doubt, the most complicated thing in Hinoe's life. Would she come back soon? Hinoe hated herself a little for even asking.

It would be a new, intriguing game, anyway.


End file.
